JPR: What is it you want, anyway?
THWC: You remember Vito Marcantonio, the New York Congressman in the old days who voted the Communist party line? When he was asked what he wanted, he said, "Capitalism with small profits." That's what I say, too.
JPR: Completely unrealistic. There has to be money for research.
THWC: Big enough profits for research, but not big enough to maintain a class of superrich who warp the whole society. I want a people's capitalist system, where everybody has enough and there are no multi-millionaires or billionaires. The economy works best when the Golden Rule is observed.
JPR: Don't you think people have a right to get rich?
THWC: To an extent. But that's a luxury. Money should be a by-product, not the aim. Where life is about getting rich, life becomes hell for those who aren't rich.
JPR: Get this straight, you. What's mine is mine. It's mine absolutely! When the government takes any of it away, that's theft.THWC: That would be true only if you made your money in a vacuum, with no assistance from society's attitudes or the government's policies. What's yours became yours because of laws and regulations that favor people like you. Society was your partner every step of the way. We gave you tax breaks and let you do things that may not be in the general interest at all. So society should get its share - a large one. It should also change the rules so those who invest have to do so in products and activities that are actually good for people rather than bad for them and addictive.
JPR: Who gets to decide what's good for people, wise guy?
THWC: Human nature decides that. The advertising industry, on behalf of people like you, has made us into a materialistic, unaware society with a lot of very false values. If something worthless like that can be done for the self-interest of corporations, why can't something worthwhile be done for the self-interest of the United States of America?
JPR: You're a dreamer. This is the real world we're living in. It's dog eat dog.
THWC: Only because people with money and power make it that way. Time to give everybody a chance to be better, more intelligent, happier people. That's called freedom.
JPR: Now you're advocating outright socialism.
THWC: If I were advocating socialism, I'd have only the government doing the investing. What I'm advocating is a change in public ethics and public health policies.
JPR: I do this society a lot of good, buddy. I give plenty to charities...
THWC: ...And deduct it from your taxes while getting credited with being a philanthropist. You're benefiting from what the public ends up paying for, which is typical of how people like you operate and how your influence on policy causes things to work.
JPR: What would the charities do if not for me and people like me? We're the ones who help the needy.
THWC: Why the hell should the needy be dependent on you? Why should whether people live or die be up to whether you happen to feel like helping them out? We have a government to look out for the well-being of the disadvantaged. While people can, they work and support the government. When they can't, the government should support them. And it should give you a nice tax hike to help it do that.
JPR: Taking care of people ain't a core function of government!
THWC: Who decides what a core function is? And why can't the people use their government to look out for the people, instead of having to subsidize and further enrich freebooters like you?
JPR: People like me are the backbone of this society. You don't realize the kinds of contributions I can make because of my background and my savvy. For example, I'm chairman of the board of trustees of Bigbux University. That's a kind of public service that only those who know their way around can perform. You'd keep us from gaining that experience of the world and applying it to practical public ends like that.
THWC: We've seen how you use that experience. Bigbux University has bought up most of the open land in the rural county in which it's located - not because it wants to expand that much, but to keep new businesses from being able to open there. [Editor's note: This kind of thing has been known to happen.] That way the school has no competition for the county labor force, so it can go on paying its employees low wages and giving them poor benefits. The experience and worldly wisdom you boast of are enriching your university by impoverishing the people.
JPR: The successful have to look out for themselves and each other.
THWC: No they don't. It's the people who have to start looking out for themselves and each another. Otherwise they get taken advantage of by the successful.
JPR: If the riffraff take over, civilization will collapse.
THWC: What does civilization have to do with you, anyway? Not to worry, though. The real problem is that when 99% of the wealth is in the pockets of 1% of the population, the way you want it, the society's values are set and the policies are decided by those who are good at raking in money, with no test of whether they're wise or disinterested. Oligarchy is a formula for feudalism; it means death to the independence and viability of democratic institutions.
JPR: Why, you dirty Marxist-Leninist-Stalinist traitor! I'm going to get the Congress to do something about that subversive blog of yours. The Founders didn't put free speech in the Constitution so it could be used by commies against real Americans!
THWC: Your kind of appreciation of our American heritage only underscores what can happen when the wrong people control most of the money.
JPR: Watch your back, pal. The American people are with me, not with you.
THWC: Most Americans still want America to be America, even after two generations of escalating anti-democratic propaganda. Thanks for your time and have a nice day, turkey, preferably on some other planet.
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